Watering the hanging pots the other day, who should pop out and jump on the plastic support of another pot, but a frog. He lives in the right hand pot you see in the smaller photo.
Do you think if I kiss him he'll turn into my Prince?
We're almost there. In fact the trip from Menton to Latte, which is where we will drop anchor, is only about 10 minutes from Menton. Here we are passing La Mortola and the Hanbury Gardens, one of the most beautiful gardens in an area famous for its gardens. We'll visit it one day, I promise. Click on the smaller photo for a better view of this beautiful house.
The Via Aurelia, an old Roman road, runs through the gardens which were created in 1867 by the Englishman, Sir Thomas Hanbury and has a collection of 6,000 plants. It's now managed by the University of Genoa.
Trivia: about a television series called Rosemary & Thyme, which stars Felicity Kendal and Pam Ferris. Caroline Hanbury, who still lives in Villa Hanbury, allowed the house and gardens to be used for this detective series about two lady gardeners. Her terrace was dug up and a restaurant created for the filming - afterwards, it was restored as before. Along with other friends, I spent one evening as an 'extra' in the 'restaurant.' If you saw that instalment of the series, and knew what I looked like, you'd see me calling for the waitress! I seem to remember getting paid 100 francs for it too. (well, I still have my Equity card!)
The perched village you see high up to the left of the photograph is Grimaldi Superiore.
Tomorrow we drop anchor just around the bay.
June is garden month in Menton. Menton has many famous gardens and I hope to feature some of them in the future. However, here we are in May and probably because we've had so much rain, many gardens are looking good.
Here is a plant that does well in this climate and on the poor, free draining soil we have here. It's called Echium candicans (sometimes called Echium fastuosum) - 'Pride of Madeira.' It loves our long dry summers and needs no watering. The bees and butterflies just love it. Apparently it's a member of the borage family (remember borage in Pimm's? - a long delicious drink decorated with young leaves of borage - mint was an alternative) My mother always used to serve Pimm's No 1 Cup before lunch on Sundays - in the summer.
The green plant you see in the foreground with the sprays of tiny flowers about to bloom is a young avocado. If you click on the smaller photo to the left you can see that an echium can fill quite a space. I love how it tumbles over the walls, don't you?
Note: care is needed when cutting back an echium - or even brushing past its hairy leaves. It can set up a skin irritation. I always forget...
(I've had no telephone or internet connection for two days - France Telecom tell me it'll not be up for a few days. Some problem between my house and the road. Grrrrrrr. Am posting from a cyber cafe - very sorry but can't comment for the moment but thank you so much for your comments. Will catch up as soon as poss).
Following on from the posting a couple of days ago, here we are inside the Palais de l'Europe which is holding the Orchid Exhibition. You can see the outside of this beautiful building on the left.
